mcmxi
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Equipment
***Current*** M6060HDC, MX6000HSTC & GL7000 ***Sold*** MX6000HST & BX25DLB
Thanks so much for taking the time to create a sketch. Now I understand what you mean. I made something similar for my truck so that I don't beat up trailers, and more importantly my boat, when towing. Rock Tamers is one brand but they're $500 or so. I made up my own custom equivalent to fit the bumper and it cost me less than $50. Mine also do double duty as a step to get in/out of the bed.Here's a sketch to try to show what I was thinking. The angle just holds the mud flaps in place with a couple of bolts as needed for each rubber flap. The angle iron can be attached to the mower with a clip angle at each end. The mount for the flaps is then up out of the way and the flaps can be as long and as heavy as you choose.
I can see why Del Morino designed the guard the way they did. They're balancing cost with reasonable use and it's not their fault that an operator can drive over a log that's laying in the grass. The flaps have to swing in both directions through 180° or so and it would take a double hinged flap to achieve that with the bar sitting above the exit chute. But I'm up for a challenge and a double hinged flap is not hard to make. The rubber guard idea is ok but I'd rather keep the current design concept with metal flaps but upgrade it to be more robust.